Books that you miss upon finishing.

VR/AR leaders often recommend it to experience one of our possible futures: ultra-simulation (in 2045). The impressive narration by Wil Wheaton often had me chuckling, the detail in the book astounded me and of course it was fun to hear the vast number of (familiar) 1980’s references.

Favourite reads & listens

What senses would you extend?Neil Harbisson talks about going from full colourblindness to installing an antenna so he could hear sound. Apparently the cleaning product isle in the supermarket is like a fun nightclub! It’s an uplifting, fascinating, futuristic, 9:35min watch. Actually even the first few minutes is worth it to imagine a new dimension for you.Photo credit: Ted.com

Rolling Stone followed Elon around for months.Here are a few quotes that struck me:

The Websummit opening remarks are a great call for designers, creators, entrepreneurs and technologists to focus on building tech that is useful and fair for society. Included are: Stephen Hawking on AI, Bryan Johnson on HI, a regulator’s view of Facebook and other ultra powerful tech companies.

Great presence

Thanks for the laugh David Roberts (of Innovation and Disruption at Singularity University). Here is his bio: “His fascination with technology began In fourth grade after building a hovering electric drone, to carry his younger sister to the bus stop, powered by what was formerly his mother’s vacuum cleaner, and fortunately limited by the length of an electric power cord.”Have you added humour to yours?

PS. One of the companies and experiences that have most impressed me in the last couple of years is Manly Ocean Adventures. Knowledgeable, exceptional value, and thoughtful, they’re advertising their incredible experiences (with or without whales) as great Christmas gift ideas. If you’re near Sydney or your people are… this could be for you!

PPS. in a previous email I wrote about the Apple Airpods. My update from a month of using them is that I’m still loving the earphones quick change between computer and iPhone and watch phonecall pickup. I am missing the ease of the Jaybirds hanging around my neck. The Airpods are a bit more of a cognitive load for me. They’re fiddly to remember where they are / to put in my pocket when I’m on the move and I sense I’ve a higher risk of losing them. Jaybird X2 Sport were around my neck all the time and I could use one or two earphones and never think about the battery or getting into the practice of taking out one Airpod during a long phonecall to make sure I have enough battery. The tech of the Airpods is beautiful and clever and it’s wonderful they can be used across many bluetooth devices – not just Apple’s. Airpods around the neck!?!

Favourite reads & listens

Designing the future suburb for drones, autonomous vehicles and the changing environment.

For years I’ve been a fan of libraries offering great services and here they go again! Seeing this in Kevin Kelly’s email prompted me to check out Lynda.com at Melbourne City Library and it worked well. Perhaps you can access Lynda courses via your library?”Lynda.com has an excellent collection of training videos for learning programming, design, bitcoin fundamentals, bookkeeping, and much more. Lynda charges a monthly fee, but if you have a library card, the chances are you can become a Lynda member for free.”

Enjoy the great acting in Bladerunner 2049. Spot the zen reminders and beauty in dystopia.”It is less a movie and more of an experience. It feels like an immersion into virtual reality without 3D. The unmusical sound track, slow-pace editing (it runs almost 3 hours!), breathtaking visual details, all deliver a stunning alternative world, with even more persuasion than its famous prequel.” Kevin Kelly

For your CEO and senior leaders

Meet the world’s first Tech Ambassador & Embassy.”The new job will have four key roles: building partnerships; shaping tech companies’ opinions; spotting new trends; and overhauling the Foreign Ministry itself.”

If your leaders haven’t yet gotten Augmented Reality, this may help to see how 3D spaces are being used to get things done via ARKit.

You may be able to guess this photo is me looking across to and imagining myself skiing my favourite Mt Hotham lines. Now that the snow season has ended, I’m transitioning to the surfboard, enjoying the blossoms, being under blue skies, getting caught in the rain, and seeing the kids return to school for Term 4.

It’s about YOU.

What’s on your mind? What could I help you with? Shoot me a reply with:

~ a question

~ a query on a current challenge

~ ideas of topics you’d like to read in future newsletters

Fun 🙂

Deep Work.

Amazingly a month after finishing Cal Newport’s “Deep Work” book the learnings, reminders and productivity tips have continued to (usefully) pop into my mind.

Turns out this book and Kevin Kelly’s are my favourites in the past year.

Did you enjoy them too?

Industries of the Future ~ Alec Ross

Another recent read was Alec Ross’s “Industries of the Future” which went deeper than his TED talk. The main outtake: get your unique life/career/work purpose very clear and start profiling and marketing yourself online.

Get to it!

Here’s a favourite quote:

In case of overwhelm (“more books to read!”)

Any of the books I recommend have quotes on the Good Reads website. If you’re wondering about reading something, type into Google:

“good reads quotes [name of book / author]”

…and then click through to the Good Reads quotes page where you’ll gain a quick overview of the book. These days this helps me decide whether to read a book.

Welcome to the 14th edition of this email (over 6 months!). Did you know you can read all past editions in the archive?

This time round I’m providing a digest of the fascinating things I’m reading / spotting. Here and there I will throw in one of these more personal emails where I share things I’m enjoying right now, and what’s on my mind. If you like this format, let me know by replying to this email.

_____

Let’s get into it.

I subscribe to Audible.com and get an audio book each month. Like podcasts, they’re a great way to be informed and now there’s no pile of books by my bed. Wahoo!

My recent favourite audiobooks are:

Kevin Kelly’s “The Inevitable” – within 6 hours of listening you’ll be up to date with the 12 tech forces that are shaping our future. I found listening to this at 1.25 speed worked well and the 6 hours took me about 3 week in amongst listening to other media.

Ryan Holiday’s “Ego is the Enemy” is exactly what you’d hope for.Bluetooth Headphones have come up a lot in my conversations in the past fortnight. Sounds like the new Jaybirds are even better. I’ve realised that I’m not in the market from Apple’s Airpods as the Jaybirds sit around my neck ready to be popped in my ear when I want to chat to Siri and don’t need to be put away (or lost/left behind on a cafe table!). I’ve upped my weekly average on podcasts and audiobook listening since writing this post about gaining extra hours of learning in February.

Don’t just take my word for it, try them for yourself. Get learning on-the-go!

Play Your Best (Work) Game.

I’ve collected the tips I’ve learnt from running The Do Lectures here in Australia. Here’s a sneak peak prior to them flying on Social Media:

On the LinkedIn app, endorsements now include insights on the specialists who rate you in their skill. It takes time for people to endorse you so refresh your skills now – check they’re relevant, in a useful order and double check your settings are on for people to endorse you. Here’s how.

Still not sure where to start with LinkedIn? This very possibly will save you years.

We’re increasing the price of our coaching packages significantly next year so book this month before the price goes up:

Like what you see? Receive future news and online presence tips.

Success!

These are the best podcasts and audiobooks I’ve found for top performance, emerging technology, and business trends from listening to hundreds of podcasts and a couple of years worth of audiobooks.

Best Podcasts for Top Performance

1. Anatomy of Next

One of the things I love about online content at the moment is greater access to the ‘good news stories’. The Anatomy of Next is a treat. It showcases current, upcoming and longer-term technology and the effects on humanity through storyline and interviews with world experts in genetics, tech, and beyond. What’s rad about it is that it’s dispelling many of the dystopian/destruction future storylines often in Hollywood blockbuster movies (think: Terminator). It’s useful in seeing the future brightly.

5. Tim Ferriss Interviews

Tim Ferriss podcasts are interviews with people who are operating at best-in-the-world level. Learn from the best! Enjoy their wise and calm perspectives. Tim is the author of the ‘Four Hour’ books that are really useful for developing your mindset to identify greater productivity, performance and to be globally-aware. Access podcasts through searching for Tim Ferriss in the Podcasts app on your smartphone or head here. These are my favourite interviews with top performers across various professions in suggested listening order:

If you’re interested in productivity and gaining increased focus, Tim Ferriss also provides insight beyond his book (which is a great introduction) through these podcasts where he shares his personal experiments and what has worked:

Episode 13: “Productivity” Tricks for the Neurotic, Manic-Depressive, and Crazy (Like Me)
Magic of Mindfulness: Complain Less, Appreciate More, and Live a Better Life
Episode 6: 6 Formulas for More Output and Less Overwhelm
Episode 9:The 9 Habits to Stop Now – the Not-To-Do List
Episode 17: The Power of Negative Visualization
Lazy: A Manifesto
How to Earn Your Freedom
How to Practice Poverty and Reduce Fear
How to 10X Your Results, One Tiny Tweak at a Time
How to Avoid the Busy Trap (And Other Misuses of Your Time)

6. Arianna Huffington

7. Voices of VR

“VR” stands for Virtual Reality = Next big thing. Get on it: the Voices of VR podcast 🙂

8. The Future of the Internet

This Freakonomics podcast investigates “Is the Internet Being Ruined”. Interesting analysis of the big players such as Facebook and aspects of privacy, as well as potential solutions. Well worth a listen.

9. No Such Thing as a Fish

“The QI researchers (known as ‘elves’) host a weekly podcast to half a million subscribers, where they discuss the most interesting facts they’ve unearthed that week.”

10. Elizabeth Gilbert Interviews

11. Stacking the Bricks

Amy Hoy and Alex Hillman help creatives, consultants, small business owners, entrepreneurs and freelancers grow their online presence, business and set up their online marketing systems to attract relevant leads by first finding a niche group of customers and deeply researching and analysing their needs.

Cal’s “Be So Good they Can’t Ignore You” is fabulous too. “He debunks the passion hypothesis (that you need to follow your passions to find work you love) and courage culture (that you need to be emotionally brave too) and instead highlights people who have developed their experience and skills (career capital) prior to using it for greater autonomy, income, flexibility and more.” Although the audiobook is repetitive, its concise length and clearly presented arguments make it well worth the listen.

Kevin Kelly’s “The Inevitable” – within 6 hours of listening you’ll be up to date with the 12 tech forces that are shaping our future. I found listening to this at 1.25 speed worked well and the 6 hours took me about 3 week in amongst listening to other media.

“Ready Player One” immerses you in a VR future – great for strategists and future thinkers to better imagine aspects of what could come to be. Have a bit of fun!